Women charged after pedestrians struck, cop bitten

A woman is seen being pulled from her vehicle by police offers in this still image from video posted to Facebook. (FACEBOOK)

While thousands of people were enjoying fireworks at The Forks Monday evening, Winnipeg police were dealing with their own explosive situation.

A 20-year-old woman is accused of striking a young child with her car, deliberately bumping the kid’s irate father with the same vehicle and then biting a police officer who was attempting to arrest her.

A video of the incident — captured by someone in the crowd — was posted on Facebook Tuesday. The 110-second clip shows the woman seemingly refusing to budge from her Pontiac Sunfire while an officer reaches in to shut off the ignition. Another officer then assists him in pulling the woman out the open window of her car and down to the ground.

Her arrest is met with loud cheers from people on the scene, many of whom were also shouting profanities at the woman.

The incident began around 11:30 p.m. as the woman was attempting to leave The Forks following the Canada Day fireworks show. Police say the woman, in a rush to get out of the crowded area, hit the child but caused no major injury.

"The father of the child became upset, at which time the female proceeded to drive her car into him multiple times attempting to push him out of the way. Again, no injuries were sustained," police said in a news release.

Officers were called to the area, but things only got worse.

"Attending members instructed the female to pull her vehicle off to the side of the road repeatedly, which she refused. Due to the heavy pedestrian traffic, the female was unable to proceed any further. It was at this time officers requested that she turn off the ignition to her vehicle for public safety reasons. Again, she refused," police said.

"As a result of the circumstances presented, one of the officers reached into the vehicle, turning the ignition off. While doing so, the female proceeded to bite the officer, causing an injury."

The woman is now facing a long list of charges including assaulting a peace officer, failing to stop and remain stopped by a peace officer, and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

A 17-year-old female passenger was also arrested and charged with obstruction. Both women were released on promises to appear in court, so their names have not been disclosed.